Dropbox became very slow and freezes after iOS 12 update

[Marcocap]

After the update to iOS 12 on my iPhone 7 Dropbox started to behave really bad. It freezes very often, minutes of charging time to just show me a portion of the files in the folder I’m working on. Already deleted the app-restarted the phone-reinstalled the app but nothing has changed. It’s impossible to use it via app. On the seme device I can use it via browser and it works perfectly as in the past.
Could you help me?

[Walter]

Hey there @Marcocap - sorry to hear that!

Could you please try to clear the cache on your app and then sign out and back into your Dropbox account? To do this: 

1.  Navigate to the “Personal” tab
2. Tap the gear icon in the upper-left corner of the screen 
3. Select “Clear Cache”

Once this is done then please ensure you log out of the Dropbox application, then restart your device and log back in again.

If that does not improve the app's functionality, please log a ticket with our team so we can have a look into this internally with all of our tools available. Alternatively, I could reach out to you via email to the address you use for your forum's profile.

In either case, please keep me posted. 

[Marcocap]

I tried (I had to try 3 times because it was stacking both in the cache clearing and the logout process) and now it seems to work properly.

I’ll test it in the next days and I’ll come back to this post if something bad happens again!

Thank you for your super fast support!
Marco

[Walter]

Glad to hear this helped Marco!

Should you need anything else, don't hesitate to ask; and feel free to circle back to this thread if you have any updates on this matter. 

Thanks for your swift reply as well and have a great rest of your day @Marcocap! 

[tominmt]

This is my problem, too.  Ever since I loaded iOS 12 on my iPad, the Dropbox app is not functioning right.  It flocks up, kicks me out,  files will not list or file icons don’t appear... it’s a mess.

[Walter]

Sorry to hear that @tominmt - have you followed the intsructions I listed above? 

If you did and still have issues with this, please send me a screenshot so I can have a visual of the problem as well.

Thanks!

[tominmt]

I cleared the cache and it helped...for about 2 days.  Dropbox since iOS 12 locks up, kicks me out of the app. Photos take forever to appear...if they ever do at all.  What is going on?

[tominmt]

App locks up. These files never loaded

[Walter]

Thanks for the update @tominmt - how are you today?

Have you tried clearing your cache again after you got this problem? Also, can you see these files on the web?

Note that the Camera Uploads feature works differently depending on the kind of device you have. Currently, the upload process has some limitations on iOS devices, specifically with location and background/foreground permissions. It looks like this could be the root cause of the issue you’re experiencing.

There are three things we can do to fix this issue. 

1. Uploading files with the “+” (plus) button:  If you’re manually uploading files using the “+” (plus) button, uploads will only run while the app is in the foreground (in other words, it’s the app you’re actively looking at). 

When the app is put in the background (in other words, you’re actively looking at some other app instead of Dropbox), Dropbox can only run manual uploads for a few minutes. After this, iOS stops the process to save battery on your device.

 To fix this issue, please keep the app in the foreground while an upload is in progress.

2. Auto-uploading from Camera Roll:  If you’re using Camera Uploads to automatically upload photos from Camera Roll to Dropbox, you’ll need to turn on “Background Uploading.” This allows your photos and videos to continue uploading even if you don’t have the app open. To fix this issue, turn on Background Uploading:

1. Open the Dropbox app.
2. Tap the "Home" tab.
3. Tap the gear icon  
4. Select “Camera Uploads.”
5. Toggle "Background Uploading" to "on." (Or, if it's already set to "on," toggle the setting off and then on again.)

If Background Uploading is turned on but Camera Uploads still stops, changing locations should restart the upload. 

Moreover, bear in mind that our mobile app can be slow on iOS devices if the following are true:

A. You have “iCloud Photo Library” enabled
B. You have “Optimize iPhone Storage” enabled in your iCloud Photo settings

This option (the "Optimize iPhone Storage") stores the high-resolution versions of your files to the cloud, and keeps low-res versions on your device. For Dropbox to upload the high-res file, it has to connect to iCloud’s servers, download the photo, and then sync it to Dropbox. This process can be slowed by the strength of the server connection, and it only works over Wi-Fi.

3. To address this issue, if that is the case, you can try the following:

i. Disable the "Optimize iPhone Storage" setting on your mobile device
ii. Try using Desktop Camera Uploads. This automatically transfers new photos or videos to Dropbox when you plug your device into a computer with the Dropbox desktop app. To use this option, sign in to the Dropbox app on that computer with the same account you're signed in to on your phone. Then connect your phone to that computer (for example, with a USB cord). 

This second option may not be any faster than a mobile upload, yet, if you have a large number of files you can leave Dropbox open overnight to allow the upload to finish. 

I understand these options aren't ideal and our engineering team is actively working to make this better.

I hope this information helps and sorry for the lengthy response. Happy Monday!

PS: If you're still seeing this after all of my suggestions, you can log a ticket with our team so we can have a further look into this with all of our tools available. 

[Marcocap]

Hello @Walter,
Unfortunately, after some day of normal (never reactive as before the update to iOS 12) behavior, the problem is back.
It’s really impossible to use Dropbox on my iPhone 7 at the moment.
Thanks for your help!